...States have grown interested in joining the fray as well. Last year Russian journalists infiltrated an organization in St. Petersburg that pays people to post at least 100 comments a day; an investigation this past summer found that a well-connected businessman was paying Russian trolls to manage 10 Twitter accounts with up to 2,000 followers. In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian admitted it was having trouble moderating what it called an “orchestrated campaign.” “Bye-bye Eddie,” tweeted the Estonian president a few months ago, as he blocked yet another Twitter troll.

The Russian trolls have been well-documented. But others may be preparing to join them. An Iranian educational group, Tavaana, has lately found its Facebook page blocked thanks to what it suspects was the activity of Iranian trolls. Famously, the Chinese government monitors the Internet inside China, using hundreds of thousands of paid bloggers. It can’t be long before they work out how to do the same in English, or Korean, or other languages as well...